Day One was meant to see the host nation in action as well as seven other matches, but Nigeria’s failure to turn up on time in Kuala Lumpur forced them into a forfeit of their opening game over the host nation Malaysia.

Thomas Cup:

Pre-Tournament favourites China defeated Peru in the opening match of Group A with a convincing 5-0 win, with Lin Dan impressing with a 21-4, 21-6 victory over Antonio De Vinatea in 20 minutes. Chen Jin and Chen Long also won their singles easily to give China a 3-0 lead in the match. Two simple wins for the doubles pairings completed the 5-0 win.

Denmark also completed an impressive 5-0 victory over Poland in the first of the all-European ties in Group C, with Peter Gade winning the opening match over Przemyslaw Wacha 21-9, 21-9 to lay down a marker for the match that the other Danes responded to. Boe and Mogensen defeated Cwalina and Logosz in the second match, followed by wins for Jorgensen, Paaske and Rasmussen and finally Joachim Persson to defeat the Poles by 5-0, all in two games.

Indonesia took on Australia in Group D, with Taufik Hidiyat leading the charge against Jeff Tho. 26 minutes was all Hidayat needed to give Indonesia a 1-0 lead, winning 21-12, 21-12. There was little resistance from the Australians in the other four matches, except for Smith and Warfe’s brave second game performance that they had 3 game points against Kido and Setiawan, only to lost out to the Indonesians 24-22.

Uber Cup:

China opened up their Uber Cup campaign with a 5-0 demolition of the USA in their opening group game. Wang Yihan started the rout with a stunning 21-2, 21-9 victory over Rena Wang in 21 minutes, before Ma and Wang won the opening doubles match 21-7, 21-12. China conceded just 37 points in the final three matches of the rubber, with Wang Xin, Wang Shixian and the pairing of Pan and Tian completing an impressive first victory for the Uber Cup favourites.

Indonesia’s men secured a 5-0 victory over Australia; the women matched the task with a 5-0 win over Australia’s women. All five matches won in two games, with little resistance from the Australians, only Australia’s doubles partnerships were able to secure double digit scores in both of their two games.

Japan against Germany had the makings of a tight match, the opening match seen Eriko Hirose take on Juliane Schenk. The Germans took an early 1-0 lead in the match with Schenk’s 21-15, 21-12 victory, the lead however was short lived as Fujii and Kakiiwa levelled the rubber at 1-1 with a two game victory. Ai Goto defeated Karin Schnaase to give the Japanese a 2-1 advantage. The first doubles match was the only 3-game match of the day as Suetsuna and Maeda took on Schenk and Overzier. The Japanese duo coming through in 3 games, 21-17, 18-21, 21-11 to give Japan an unassailable 3-1 lead. Yu Hirayama completed the comeback with a 21-16, 21-3 victory over Fabienne Deprez to give Japan a 4-1 victory.

Korea played South Africa in one of the evening games, with a 5-0 win expected by the majority. Sung Ji Hyun started with a 21-9, 21-9 victory and the Korean’s never looked back, taking the next 4 matches without the loss of a game. Only Stacey Doubell was able to take double digits in any of the ten games that the South Africans played, losing the second game in her match against Bae Youn Joo 21-10.

Eddie Smith

Eddie has been a writer for BadmintonLife.com since June 2009 covering the Major BWF events and Super Series events. Previous worked for The Guardian newspaper and was also featured in the New York Times during the London 2012 Olympics.